Short chapter, but it's posted so soon after the other one... I might even post another tomorrow. Never know...

Pairing: SephxAngxGenxZackxCloud, TsengxReno, eventual TsengxRufusxReno

-o-o-

Zack's eyes widened and he shook his head quickly. "No, Sephiroth, I love you and all, but you do NOT want to go to Gongaga! My dad will skin you alive! All of you!"

Angeal gave Zack a kiss on the cheek. "What do you mean, Pup?"

Zack shrank back into Angeal's embrace. "My parents know that I'm gay... But they think that I'm the... Topping kind of gay..."

"Oh," Sephiroth blinked. "Your afraid they will dislike us because you are submissive for us? Then Cloud will be recieved well?"

Zack made a face. "No one with a heart can hate Cloud. But... I'm scared of my dad..."

Two sets of eyes flashed to Zack's glum face. Angeal and Sephiroth spoke at once. "Has he hurt you?"

Zack laughed lightly. "You assume because I'm scared that he's abusive? As if! He loves me, and I value him highly... If he says that I can't see you guys anymore, I won't be able to... He's sort of my father, and I have to listen to the guy..."

"I don't listen to mine," a light voice said from the back. They all glanced back to see Cloud blinking sleepily and Genesis yawning.

"Why not kitten?" he asked through the yawns.

"He hit me," Cloud yawned and stretched. Genesis and Angeal felt their eyes widen and Genesis pulled Cloud close. Why was it like Cloud had no care in the world?

"WHAT? Sephiroth? Zack? Did you two know about this?" Angeal demanded.

Zack made his eyes widen as if surprised. "No, of course not! That's horrible!" Zack exclaimed.

Cloud sat up in a heap. "What's horrible is your acting skills... Don't worry, Reno already told me that you guys had me investigated."

"When?" Sephiroth asked, looking back for himself.

"After I ran a-"

"Got confused," Zack muttered.

"way and was blind. While you guys were in a meeting."

"You ran away? You were blind?" Genesis asked.

"You had him investigated? Angeal demanded.

"Yeah," Zack said. "And we found out he was born early and was sick as a child, which is why he's small, and his father was abusive. Oh, and that his father abandoned Cloud and Cloud's mother. And-"

"Zackary," Sephiroth said sternly.

"He has a right to know!" Zack said back. "We also found out... And I don't know if you know this or not, but... Your father is still alive... He has a girlfriend... And he beats her... And she might be pregnant."

All eye's went to Cloud, who looked absent. "He's..." Cloud didn't finished, but instead abruptly turned to the window. The rest of the ride was in silence.

-o-o-

The sky was burning down into night as the helicopter touched down just outside the villiage of Gongaga. Sephiroth was the first out, Zack hot on his heels. Despite his nervousness, he wanted to see his mother and father dearly.

He turned around and called out. "Yo! Hurry up! I wanna go see my mother!"

Cloud was carried out by Angeal, and Genesis was last out. "Lead on, then."

Zack turned and did just that, getting paler and paler as they neared his childhood home. Walking the streets they saw many people call out to Zack, and he responded in kind. He was happy here, and the SOLDIERs were glad to see it. Cloud felt a small pang of jealousy before pushing it away.

All too soon it seemed they were at Zack's home. He froze with a sickly expression on his face, then Cloud slipped up next to him and hald his hand. When Zack looked down at him, he offered a shy smile with a pale blush. Encouraged by thr support, he knocked on the door while readjusting his grip on Cloud's hand.

When the door swung open, a women looking a lot like Zack peered out. When she recognized her son, she cried out and hugged him fiercely, forcing him to relinquish Cloud's hand in favor of patting his mother on the back.

"Zack! I can't believe it! Your here! We haven't heard from you in so long! What have you been doing? Oh, your father will be so happy to see you!" she babbled, stepping back to survey him.

Zack smiled sheepishly. "I joined SOLDIER, like I said I would. I'm a First Class now... And these guys..." he blushed a deep red and stopped talking.

"Oh! Friends?" she asked, unaware of her son's blush.

"No," he blurted out. "They, uh, are... you know... With me."

Understanding lit the woman's face and she smiled widely. "So you did find someone! Or rather 'someones.' Your father will want to meet them when he gets back. He's out getting some stuff at the market for me, but he's probably going to need to get more if you and your... boyfriends are going to be eating with us!"

Sephiroth was first to speak after the babbling. "No thank you, we don't want to impose. I'm sure that Zackary will want to stay, however. We can get rooms at a local inn and feed ourselves."

"Oh, no! I could let you boys go hungry!"

Zack winked at his mother. "I'll introduce them to Dad and they can go get rooms at the inn. While your cooking, I'll show Cloud to the market and he can fix something up for them. Oh, the silver haired one is Sephiroth, which you probably know from Shinra's advertisements. The one with the red leather is Genesis. The one with the huge sword is Angeal, he was my mentor. And the smallest one that looks like a chocobo is Cloud."

"It's nice to meet you all, please come in!" she exclaimed, showing everyone where Zack got his cheery temperment from. She stepped back to let them in and Zack dragged Sephiroth and Angeal in, leaving Genesis to follow and Cloud to give the woman a shy smile.

When everyone was in and safely tucked into a seat, Zack's mother looked them all over. Zack knew her to be horrible with small talk, but it seemed she was going to make the honest attempt.

She focused on Cloud, which was the worst thing she could have done. "Cloud was it? That is a very unusual name," she smiled at him.

Cloud looked down at his feet and shyly nodded. He had no experience with females other than his mother, and combine that with a shyness that never fully went away, you get a mute Cloud.

Her smiled faltered. "Have you known Zack long?"

A shake of the head indicating no.

Her smile faltered and completely fell this time.

Zack decided to intervene. "Uh, Mom... Cloud isn't really the talking sort. He's really shy so..."

She tried smiling again. "Well, I won't bite, will I Zack?"

"Nah, my Mom's cool, Cloud. You could look at her at least. Go ahead, give her a wave," he encouraged.

Never one to refuse anyone, Cloud peeked through his blond spikes to shyly look at the woman and he gave her a brief wave before returning to watching the floor.

A small chuckle escaped the SOLDIERs. Zack's mother sighed a little, but didn't give up.

"You like to cook?"

A nod.

"That's good. Zack can't cook at all. If it weren't for resturants and army food, I think he would have starved."

A shy smile at Zack's expense.

"What's your favorite things to cook?"

Cloud scuffed his foot on the ground and the woman waited patiently for an answer. "Breakfasts," he answered in a quiet voice.

"Oh, so you can talk!" she teased.

The door opened and Zack flinched, causing all the men to shrink in on themselves. An older man walked in the door and froze as he saw the full room. His eyes traveled from face to face. Sephiroth, Genesis, and Angeal looked the man in the eye, but cloud couldn't bring himself to tear his eyes away from the ground. Zack smiled at the man weakly.

"Hey Dad, I'm home."

-o-o-

So... I'm going to try and squeeze in as many updates as I can until the school year ends. Hurrah for quick writing!